Roses, Roses Everywhere!

Ever since I was a little girl I have always loved roses. I have always had a garden since I was 9 yrs. old. My first garden consisted of purple and white violets that grew up around the flagpole in our yard. The flagpole was nestled in amongst 2 huge blue spruce trees. This was the second home my parents owned and it was old-150 yrs. old to be exact. One day I was walking through the field behind my parents house and I saw a rosebush. I didn't know at the time that it was a meadow rose, which grows to be one huge tangled mass and starts taking over things! I dug this little rosebush up and moved it into my garden, nutured it and waited for it to bloom. It bloomed and proceeded to grow and grow taking over almost everything I planted in that garden. Then my parents moved to the house they still live in. I bet the people that bought that house really loved the fact that I brought a meadow rose into their lives-LOL!!!

I attribute my gardening skills to my paternal grandmother, Nana. She always had huge gardens and I would help her weed them when I visited her and she would tell me the different names of the plants as we would scour her garden for those dreaded weeds! Over the years I have read books, magazines and pretty much everything I can get my hands on about gardening and plants. Roses are one of my first loves though. I battled the cold winters of NJ for many years and lost alot of my rosebushes year after year. I always felt every Spring like I was holding funerals for my beloved friends when they wouldn't wake up from their winter naps! Then 6 years ago John and I moved to Charlotte and presto chango roses love it here in the South!! I bought 5 rosebushes from The Antique Rose Emporium and they all survived much to my surprise and really flourished. When we moved from our home 1 year ago I could only manage to dig up 2 rosebushes because the others just got way too big. The William Lobb moss rose has just started to bloom and it adds gorgeous color to our courtyard. I have the lowest amount of roses I have ever had at any house we have every lived in but we are very limited on space here. These roses are really great choices though because they add fragrance and color in just the right spots! About one and half weeks ago my little pink rose started blooming and the fragrance is just intoxicating when you walk into the courtyard. I bought both roses from The Antique Rose Emporium-here is the link: http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/. (Sorry about just posting the link but something is blocking me from linking things on my blog.) The William Lobb rose is really cool because of the moss-like appearance on the buds. There are a ton of thorns on this rose though and if you have an issue with thorns this definitely is not the rose bush for you! Here are a collection of some rose pictures I took the other day. Oh and I just couldn't resist taking a photo of my prize hosta, which I have nicknamed Sunshine and Shadow (it's real name is Guacamole)! Enjoy!